Bulk of Collins charges related to Ocean Mist payments

Former county Water Resources Agency board member Steve Collins billed Ocean Mist Farms for attending an agency finance committee meeting even after he resigned from the water board, according to a complaint filed against him by the District Attorney's Office this week.

Collins announced his resignation in an April 11 letter to the Board of Supervisors amid questions about his dual role in the now-stalled Regional Desalination Project. He allegedly requested payment from the Castroville-based artichoke grower three days later for attending the water agency committee meeting.

It was one of six water agency-related meetings Collins is alleged to have illegally billed Ocean Mist for attending from fall 2010 through spring 2011. State law bans public officials from receiving payment for an official duty.

In addition to facing misdemeanor charges related to those billings, Collins is charged with 31 felony counts of grand theft under false pretenses in connection with a series of monthly $950 consulting payments from Ocean Mist for work he is alleged not to have done, including meetings he didn't attend or that never occurred. The payments began in November 2008 and continued through May 2011.

Despite the public focus on Collins' financial relationship with RMC Water and Environment, which paid him $160,000 for his work on behalf of the desal project while he was still a county water board member, the Ocean Mist charges represent the bulk of the district attorney's case against him.

Just two of the 33 felony charges in the 39-count complaint filed Tuesday stem from Collins' role in making three key water project agreements. Collins' arraignment on the charges was postponed until Nov. 30.

According to invoices from Marina Coast Water District, Collins spent nearly all of 2010 being paid by RMC for planning, promotion and finance on behalf of the project, including his attendance at a series of meetings. The sessions involved, among others, the water agency, the Board of Supervisors and the state Public Utilities Commission, where he was identified as a water board member and argued on behalf of the project.

His contract with RMC ended Dec. 2, the date the PUC approved the project.

State law bars public officials from making or helping to make any contract in which they have a financial interest.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Terry Spitz said none of Collins' RMC billings qualified for prosecution on individual counts because the one-year statute of limitations had expired. Though RMC won a $28million contract to manage the desal project, Spitz said the district attorney's investigation found no evidence that Collins received payments contingent on approval of the project management contract. The office found no evidence that payments continued after the PUC approved the desal project.

Collins recused himself from voting on the RMC project management contract while he was on the water board, sparking questions about his relationship with RMC.

Spitz said there was no consideration of charging either RMC or Ocean Mist. None of the public officials who knew about Collins' dual role are being charged. State law bars public officials from being charged as co-conspirators in conflict of interest violations.

However, Spitz said the state Fair Political Practices Commission has more flexibility in pursuing charges against Collins and other public officials under the state's Political Reform Act.

"Their statute is much broader than what we enforce," he said.

It isn't clear what Collins was hired to do for Ocean Mist, whose president, Joe Pezzini, declined comment because of the investigation. It is unclear why he would bill for attending water agency-related business. Prosecutors have declined to offer details.

Collins, 58, who served for 16 years as the Grower-Shipper Association's nominee on the water agency board, has a long association with the local agricultural industry, including a 14-year agribusiness career highlighted by a stint as chief financial officer and vice president at Ocean Mist.

According to Collins' financial disclosure documents on file with the county, he has been paid by Ocean Mist for work as a consultant since at least 2003, when he reported earnings of more than $100,000. He has collected hefty fees as a consultant for Don Chapin Co., Growers Express and Ausonio Inc. during the past several years.

The desal project, which is in mediation prompted largely by questions about the validity of the agreements, involves a partnership between the county, Marina Coast and California American Water to provide a replacement source of water for Peninsula customers facing a state-ordered cutback in pumping from the Carmel River.